The Dwarf Umbrella Tree, also called Schefflera Arboricola is an evergreen multi-stemmed shrub native to China. Here’s a good website with more information about this plant.
My Dwarf Umbrella Tree
Slowly, the leaves spread out and form a sort of canopy, which gives it the name.
I keep this plant in partial sunlight for 3/4 hours a day.
It requires very little maintenance except deadheading some branches.
I water it between once a week during peak winters and alternate days during peak summers.
I fertilise it every 2 months or when it shows signs of growth.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
Recently, I had a dream about Sitabuldi. For those who are not fortunate enough to have ever lived in Nagpur, Sitabuldi, also called Buldi (But pronounced “Birdie”) is a densely populated commercial neighbourhood of Nagpur.
The area is divided into “Modis”, which means “Lane” (loosely translated to English). I have a lot of memories of this place during my (extensive) stay at Nagpur. Some of the highlights are
The second hand mobile phone market, where I was a regular, both to sell and buy cellphones.
Hotel President, in Modi No. 3, where my parents often stayed, when they came to visit me in Nagpur.
Pape Juice Corner, which squeezed the freshest and best fruit & vegetable juices and was open till the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, the last 2 times I visited Nagpur, I found it closed.
Haldiram’s Thaat Baat restaurant, where we ate sometimes, when we had some money, but only enough to be able to afford vegetarian food.
Some rooftop bar, whose name I cannot remember.
Janki Talkies, a small cosy theatre, where we went only once to watch some movie at night. Our group was the only group to buy tickets that night, so the theatre operator had to begrudgingly turn on the projector & start the movie just for us.
Sitabuldi Fort, which we passed many times, but never bothered to go inside, because engineering students don’t go see forts.
Shukrawari lake, also called Gandhisagar lake, which we passed many times, but never bothered to go inside, because single engineering students don’t go boating on lakes.
The street vendors whom we visited to buy cheap garments from.
Some dhaba where we once ate cheap food and the utensils were coated with sand.
The place has recently changed somewhat, with a futuristic looking metro station now constructed as part of Nagpur Metro. I did make plans for a Nostalgic trip to Nagpur this year, but the Covid situation made it impossible.
The Chinese Windmill Palm, also called Hemp Palm is a short stemmed perennial plant of the Arecaceae family which originally came from the tropical and temperate mountain regions of China. Here’s a good website with more information about this plant.
My Chinese Windmill Palm; winter 2019
The leaves of the plants grow in layers and resemble a traditional Chinese fan, hence the name. In fact, these leaves have been used to make hand-fans and manuscripts in ancient India and other South East Asian countries for centuries.
A traditional hand fan made from a dried palm leaf
I keep this plant in partial sunlight for 3/4 hours a day.
The Chinese Windmill Palm requires very little maintenance except deadheading the branches at the end of every winter season, when all the leaves fall off and new leaves start emerging from the inner layers; leaving the plant without any leaves for a few (scary) weeks. Eventually, the leaves do grow back, one at a time.
Summer 2020, notice the stubs left from the older branches/leaves
I water it between once a week during peak winters and alternate days during peak summers.
I fertilise it every 2 months or when it shows signs of growth.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
The Slender Goldshower, also called Thryallis is a long stemmed perennial plant which typically flowers all year round. Here’s a good website with more information about this plant.
My Goldshower
The plant is lush & dense with green leaves which gradually turn yellow. The flowers are tiny, yellow in colour and grow in clumps. When they fall off, the floor is covered with yellow (golden) leaves and flowers, hence the name.
I keep the plant in direct sunlight for 3/4 hours a day.
The Slender Goldshower requires very little maintenance except deadheading the branches.
The Flowers
I water it between twice a week during peak winters and every day during peak summers.
I fertilise it every 2 months or when it shows signs of growth.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
Obsession & Burnout are back to haunt me. I have blogged about it before, but this time, things are a bit worse.
So, the background is, that after months of doing very light-level work, I have been handed a challenging project. Not an impossible project, not an easy one, moderately challenging. Others would be excited for this opportunity (actually were). However, I have already started obsessing about it all the time. My free time everyday, weekends and sleep time has been taken over by obsessively thinking about this project.
Some of this thinking is productive; that is I do accomplish some positive outcome, but most of it is irrational fear. Haven’t slept much last few nights.
Pathetic!
I believe the reasons for this are
Lack of useful distractions away from work because of the lockdown (more apparent during the weekend). Examples of this includes going out to spend time with family, friends & family friends. I have not much to look forward to, all week.
Lack of physical boundaries between work and leisure. Earlier, work happened in the office (mostly) and leisure happened elsewhere. Now there’s only one place for both (home), so it has become difficult to switch off from work mode when the day or week is over.
My usual hang ups about obsession, that were always a part of me.
Uncertainty about future events, some of which are beyond my control.
Fear of failure, which is more or less irrational.
Hectic schedule with both parents working and trying to handle a kid.
Guilt of not spending enough time with family, forcing that to happen and being absent emotionally even then and not doing work either.
Thinking about all the above amplifies the condition.
I plan to follow the steps below to deal with this situation
Practice mindfulness everyday, and make it a part of daily life and log mood daily.
Use organisation hacks like making lists for everything, tracking all To Dos etc.
Writing down things that cross my mind at the end of the work day and when not working and can be done later.
Establish chronological boundaries when it comes to work.
Establish physical boundaries within the house when it comes to work (This might prove a bit difficult)
Finding an engaging hobby (TV generally doesn’t help) to take my mind off such thoughts during leisure time.
Wait for this to blow over, as such phases don’t last more than a few weeks.
For now, I just want one night of good sleep, to recharge my health and sanity, for which I will use a friend’s help.
The Moss Rose is a short stemmed perennial plant which typically flowers during late spring and early summer. Here’s a good website with more information about this plant.
My Moss Roses
This pot has 2 different plants, one with orange bloom, the other with white bloom. At the peak of its bloom, it reached 15-20 flowers of both colours and the entire pot was covered with flowers, densely packed.
Moss Rose
This plant requires very little maintenance except pruning of dead branches. No fertilisation is necessary.
I water it between twice a week during peak winters and every day during peak summers.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
I inherited a money plant (a type of philodendron) from my parents when they moved to to a different city. I re-potted it into a much bigger pot, mixed and matched it with a few different species which resulted in the below.
Philodendron Cluster
This pot is neatly tucked away between my bedroom window and the air conditioner, and has three different plants.
The big, dark green leaves belong to a species of Golden Pothos, which has only 4/5 leaves per plant right now, but are bigger than average money plant leaves, about the size of a ternager’s hand. One cut of this plant also lives in the middle pot of the bottom row of my plant wall.
The smaller, dark green leaves belong to another species of Golden Pothos, which most people can relate to as the common money plant.
The smaller, light green leaves belong to a species of Heartleaf Philodendron. Two cuts of this plant also live in the left and right pots of the bottom row of my plant wall.
View from bedroom
You can cut off branches and pot them and they grow into full-sized plants, as long as there’re some roots left.
These plants require little to no maintenance. The only thing I do occasionally is use cable ties to prop up its branches and attach them to the moss stick. Eventually, the cable ties can be removed once the plants roots burrow into the moss stick.
This pot is kept in partial shade and the plants get 2/3 hours of sunlight late afternoons during the summers and no direct sunlight during the winters.
I water them once a week during the winters and alternate days during the summers. Although they don’t require much fertiliser, I fertilise them every 2 months, which encourages leaf growth.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
The Lanceleaf Blanketflower is a seasonal wildflower plant which lasts during the summer. Here’s a good website with more information about this plant.
Lanceleaf Blanketflower
I keep this in direct sunlight. The flowers start out as fuzzy balls and then blossom into the beautiful firewheel shape you see below.
Fuzzball
Flower
Flowers
This plant requires almost no maintenance except occasional fertilizing.
I water it every day during peak summers. I fertilize it every 2 months or depending on when it shows signs of growth.
It will probably die off in a few months, but the beautiful flowers are worth it., while they last.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
The Aloe Vera is a stem-less perennial plant which typically flowers during the summer. Here’s a good website with more information about this plant.
My Aloe Vera
One day, I noticed a smaller aloe vera plant growing along with the original one in the same pot, so I transplanted it to a smaller pot.
Little Sister
I keep the big one in direct sunlight and the little one in partial shade.
This plant requires almost no maintenance except occasional fertilizing.
I water it between twice a week during peak winters and every day during peak summers. I fertilize it every 2 months or depending on when it shows signs of growth.
If you cut or puncture one of the leaves, a sticky gel comes out and the cut tip fuses in a few days and self heals. I believe I am supposed to put the gel on my skin when I get sunburnt, but the Lockdown doesn’t allow me to get one.
Here’re some good tools which will help you with your gardening.
I have been having this one recurring nightmare for years. There are different variations, but the basic theme is the same.
Theme – I have not managed to graduate from college, because I haven’t passed anywhere between 6-14 exams after my last semester. Now, I am at a stage that I have to clear all my remaining subjects in the next exams, or I have to do my graduation all over again. Also, I lose my job if I don’t produce a valid degree.
Variations – In some of these nightmares, I am determined to study hard and pass this time around, but when I open my books, all the pages are blank, so I cannot study. In some variations, I do manage to study, but end up sleeping through the exam day, waking up in panic in the evening. In some cases, I am not even aware of the exams till the last moment and I end up rushing to the exam centre with no preparations.
In real life, I did manage to graduate almost 14 years ago, but by the skin of my teeth. I passed some subjects (EMF) by some fluke (I studied only a few topics and those are the ones which appeared on the exam) or after multiple attempts (Mathematics-1 took 5 attempts).
However, when I I truly lucked out was during the 8th semester exams. I had appeared for both 7th (failed subjects) and 8th semester exams during my last attempt and had only attempted the bare minimum questions in some of them. I was more surprised than relieved when the results were announced and I realised I had passed in all of these exams and graduated successfully. Later, when the mark sheets were released, I realised it was another fluke.
Fluke!
You see, I had actually failed in Subject 5 above, but, our university had a provision of grace marks. However, the rules were very specific and I had never received grace marks ever, before this. Some rules
You would get up to a total of 10 grace marks per semester only.
You would only get grace marks if it enables you to pass in all subjects in that semester
You would get grace marks only in certain specific denominations
Exactly 10 marks in one subject (I would get grace marks only if I score exactly 30 in that subject. 31 would also not do)
Exactly 5 marks each in 2 subjects (Need to score exactly 35 in 2 subjects)
Exactly 2 marks in 1 subject (which is what I got)
Even though I failed in Subject 5, I was awarded 2 grace marks and I passed that subject and graduated. If I had 1 mark more or less in that subject, I wouldn’t have graduated when I did. Maybe the fact that I graduated because of such a fluke is what triggers these nightmares. Strangely, when I wake up and realise it was all a nightmare, it still doesn’t make me feel better. What a nightmare!
The kicker? The subject that I couldn’t even get passing marks in was related to Computer Networking and I am now a network engineer.
